Surface and Interface Engineering for the Catalysts of Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction

The massive use of fossil fuels releases a great amount of CO₂, which substantially contributes to the global warming. For the global goal of putting CO₂ emission under control, effective utilization of CO₂ is particularly meaningful. Electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction reaction (eCO₂RR) has great potential in CO₂ utilization, because it can convert CO₂ into valuable carbon-containing chemicals and feedstock using renewable electricity. The catalyst design for eCO₂RR is a key challenge to achieving efficient conversion of CO₂ to fuels and useful chemicals. For a typical heterogeneous catalyst, surface and interface engineering is an effective approach to enhance reaction activity. Herein, the development and research progress in CO₂ catalysts with focus on surface and interface engineering are reviewed. First, the fundaments of eCO₂RR is briefly discussed from the reaction mechanism to performance evaluation methods, introducing the role of the surface and interface engineering of electrocatalyst in eCO₂RR. Then, several routes to optimize the surface and interface of CO₂ electrocatalysts, including morphology, dopants, atomic vacancies, grain boundaries, surface modification, etc., are reviewed and representative examples are given. At the end of this review, we share our personal views in future research of eCO₂RR.